Didi and the Gunslinger

by Larsen, Patti

Didi crosses to him and hits his feet off her furniture, the thud of his heels hitting the ground satisfying enough she joins him and picks at a grape cluster. Pip hops up and down next to her until she feeds him one.

  “Working angles, Bo?” She’s not surprised. There’s far more deceit in him than she first believed, naïve as she was. That’s right, was. Didi’s grown up a lot in the last three days.

  “Always.” He sits forward, still smiling. When he speaks again, she can barely hear him, his lips not moving. “I’ve seen your father.”

  “What?” She sits back with a start. Bo sighs, smile strained. He reaches out, pulls her forward by her hand, lips on her cheek.

  “I’m trying to fool the sensors and vids,” he says. “Try being a little more obvious, would you?”

  She should smack him, but he does have information of value. “How did you see him?” His fingers trace over her cheek, blocking view of her lips from the side. Her whisper is as quiet as she can make it. “They won’t let me out of here.”

  “I snuck on yesterday to take a look around when I figured out the crew of you were on board. Not hard to figure out where you were, but I wanted to be sure before I went to the effort.” He catches her lips with his a moment, making her cheeks tingle. When he pulls away, his mouth traces her jaw to her ear again. “Do you still have the gunslinger’s chip?”

  She does. They let her keep the old one, ruined now. The only reason they let her keep it, she supposes. “It doesn’t work.”

  “Good.” He leans away and kisses the tip of her nose. “Grape?”

  She takes the fat, purple orb from his fingers, teeth biting into the sweetness. Bo sits back again and grins at her, his favorite expression.

  “Did you know, Didi Duke, that your father, Tarvis Duke, is a famous scientist and inventor for the Galactic Conjunction?” He glances ever so subtly sideways. She already knew the vid lens was there behind the waving plant. Of course she did.

  “I didn’t.” She feigns boredom, but her heart leaps. Any talk of Dad is good talk. “How interesting.”

  Bo nods, wide jaw flexing as he chews. “From what I understand, some scandal drove him out of the University College of Sciences on Galactic Prime. Oh, about sixteen years ago.” He leans in with a conspiratorial whisper. “Something about a woman, I believe.”

  Didi’s mother?

  The door opens before he can go on and Bo laughs, sitting back. Winks. This was his plan, was it? To get them to silence him? Didi looks up as Parkay hurries forward, smiling as usual but with a rush of anxiety in her demeanor.

  “Good news!” She claps her hands. “Your father is free to see you now.”

  Bo’s sly grin tells Didi he’s given her what she wanted all along. Though how, she doesn’t know. If he’s told them about the invention, she’ll kill him. And she already owes him at least three deaths. Maybe more. She’s lost count already.

  Bo stands, offers Didi one arm, Parkay the other. The woman simpers but declines and Didi just stomps her way past him, wishing the small, soft shoes she’s been given to wear had the presence of her heavy work boots. Pip leaps from the table and wings to her, settling on her shoulder. At least they gave her what she needed that first day to fix the cyborg crow completely. Well, his body. His screwed up brain is all his own.

  She leads the way though Parkay hurries to get out in front, two soldiers—human, to Didi’s surprise—follow behind more slowly. The corridor of the ship feels like a street, wide and full of light. Extravagant, in Didi’s opinion, but she won’t complain. Not if they let her see Dad.

  His lab isn’t far from her room and she’s furious he’s been so close all along. Not surprised to find him in a lab, either, ignoring the second brilliant setup he’s been handed in favor of running to his side and hugging him.

  Dad cuddles her close, lips against her ear. “Didi,” he whispers. “You have to run.”

  ***

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Didi freezes in shock, partly from his words and partly at the sight over his shoulder. The gunslinger stands at attention, silent, blue light extinguished. What is he doing here? Why does Dad have him? She’s happy to see him, though he’s as dead to the world as he was when she deactivated his self-destruct by killing him. Sure, she’d hoped to save him, save them all by doing so. But, now she knows better. He warned her this might happen and she did it anyway.

  Murderer. She’s a murderer.

  Dad’s smile is strained as Parkay watches carefully, her own happy expression tight. Dad waves to Bo who nods to him in return, all slouching and easy going. Telling Didi she needs to be on guard and ready for anything.

  “I’m so happy to see you, Dad.” Didi feels tears well, turns her head so Parkay will see them. The woman seems to relax as Didi hugs her father a second time. “What’s going on?”

  “Just trust me. You have the gunslinger’s old chip?” Dad pats her back, cheek on her hair.

  “It doesn’t work.” She’s sure. Well, pretty sure. Thinks so. Fine, she has to test it. But it looks burned out.

  “Get to the gunslinger.” Dad lets her go and backs away, inhaling and exhaling as though invigorated by the visit. “You see my new lab? Amazing, isn’t it?” He gestures at the gunslinger. “And our old friend is here, keeping me company.”

  Didi crosses to the giant cyborg, notes the chest plate is partially open. “I miss him,” she says, just to say something, but surprised to find she does. That more tears, real ones, rise at the thought of him being dead. Her hand slips into her pocket, fingers the chip. She pulls it free and opens the front panel while Parkay gasps at her. “This belongs to you,” she says, and pushes the chip into place.

  The gold one is gone. Whatever Dad’s done with it, Didi has to trust him. And that he has a plan. It’s only when the blue light of the gunslinger flares, his right arm flexing, that she realizes someone has replaced the weapon at his side. And not with his original gun.

  This one is shinier, newer and, from the glow at the tip, even more dangerous than the last.

  The gunslinger doesn’t speak, fires at will, over Parkay’s head, the soldiers. She shrieks and hits the floor, the two men diving for cover, pulling their own weapons. But the plasma blast wasn’t aimed at them. It was aimed at the wall behind them.

  Sunlight pours through, the mottled sky of Trash Heaven at dusk on the other side. Didi almost cheers, but then things get out of hand and by the time the gunslinger sweeps her and Bo into his arms, Pip flying after them on hasty wings, she’s screaming.

  “DAD!”

  Thrusters fire, carrying her out the hole and into the growing darkness, her father’s valiant wave goodbye breaking her heart.

  “They’ll follow,” Bo barks at the gunslinger while Didi slumps in his grasp, the stench of her planet hitting her like a wall, battering her unprotected nose and mouth and making her choke. She doesn’t care. Let her die from the smell. Her father. He’s gone again. No, it’s her this time. Just when she was with him at last.

  “Not in time.” The gunslinger sounds like he was never dead, diving for the surface, skimming the ground. And doubles back. Didi’s heart lifts. Dad. They’re going back for Dad. The gunslinger’s promise…

  But no. His trajectory leads them past the outside nose edge of the G.C.S. Melville just as four mechcops flash from the hull, heading in their last direction, away from them. While the gunslinger drops to the ground, on his feet, still carrying them both toward the open hatch of a beat-up old transport.

  The captain takes one look at the gunslinger and nods, heading for the pilot room. Didi would fight, but there isn’t any fight left in her. She can only stand, furious and afraid, in the doorway of the transport’s rear, and watch as it closes, through the dirty plasglass, as the Melville and her father disappear from sight.

  ***

  Space is a dark and horrible place, she’s decided. Though, at least it doesn’t stink. Didi picks at the toes of her fancy shoes, crouched in a corner of the car
go hold, doing her best to ignore the hulking gunslinger and napping Bo Rylen sprawled next to her. Pip mutters in his sleep, curled up on her shoulder, beak nuzzling her neck as he dreams.

  She’s been trying to figure out a way to go back and return to Dad. Sure, he wanted her to leave, obviously set this up so she’d be out of danger, but that’s her decision to make, isn’t it? He could have come with them.

  Didi had thought Bo was sleeping. Until his foot reaches out and taps hers.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” he says. “And trust me, if there was a way to rescue Tarvis, we would have done it.”

  She doesn’t respond. Anger flares, makes her skin tight.

  “You accomplished your goal, didn’t you?” Bo’s teasing tone hides a hint of sorrow. “You rescued your dad.”

  From the Underlord. Only to leave him in the clutches of the Galactic Conjunction he seemed bent she’d be free of. But why?

  “Here.” Bo leans forward, slips something into her lap. “He wanted you to have this.”

  Didi waits a long moment before dropping her knees and examining the vid card he’s handed over. Dad left her a message? She wants to be furious, to throw it from her and not care, but she can’t resist.

  “I have no way to watch it,” she says, feeling pathetic and close to weeping.

  The gunslinger’s big hand takes it from her, inserts the card into a slot on his arm. He points one finger at the ground and the vid begins to play. Dad appears, in his lab, his voice tinny and soft. He obviously made this on the sly.

  “Didi,” he says, “I know you’ll never forgive me for sending you away like this. But you had to go. And, when you get to your destination, you’ll have all the reasons why.”

  Didi perks a little. “Where are we going?” But neither of her companions answer, Pip snorting awake as her dad goes on, his image guessing her question.

  “The ship captain will take you where you need to go. He owes me a favor or two. And having a gunslinger with you will make a big difference.” He smiles gently. “And be kind to Bo, would you? He’s gone through a great deal to get this to you.” Didi glares at the young thief who shrugs and blushes. “You’re not safe in the hands of the Conjunction. Your mother always said so. It was her idea to send us out into the middle of nowhere to keep you safe.” He shakes his head, looking down, shoulders slumping. “And I had to go and keep inventing. She warned me. But I didn’t listen.”

  Didi gapes. Her mother? But… her mother is dead. He told her so years ago when she asked. Made her cry. She hasn’t thought of it since.

  Dad looks up again, glances hurriedly over his shoulder. “They’ll notice I’m jamming the vid feed shortly. I don’t have much time and I wish I could tell you everything. But, when you arrive on Humnitara, ask for Petal Gont. Your mother will find you.”

  Bo whistles, low and soft, the gunslinger’s head tilting to one side. Didi ignores them both in favor of leaning closer to Dad’s image.

  “Please, don’t worry about me. I’m too valuable to them for them to harm me. And for me to come with you. I’d have sent Putter, if he survived.” Dad swallows hard on the vid. “He and your mother were old friends, Didi. There’s so much you don’t know.” He sounds close to tears before clearing his throat and going on. “They don’t know how important you are, not yet. But if I had run with you, they would never stop looking.” Blikey, her own tears are going to be the end of her. She wipes at her face and nods to him. “I will see you again, Didi. I swear it. Find your mother. Tell her what happened. And, whatever you do, don’t lose that chip.”

  Bo is grinning again, hands her the gold chip. She takes it, shaking, grips it tightly in her hand. Her father trusted a thief with this chip? Maybe he’s as naïve as she is. Still, Bo returned it, didn’t he? She can’t soften, not now. But it makes her wonder despite herself.

  “Didi, it’s not the machine. It’s the chip’s technology that makes it work.” He stops, shakes his head. “I’ve said enough. And you have running to do. I love you.” He chokes on his words. “I’ve never been good at being a father. But I’m doing right by you now, my sweet girl. Be safe. And trust the gunslinger.”

  The vid goes dark, leaving her bereft. She wants to ask the gunslinger to play it again, but can’t bring herself to speak. As she sits back again, Pip hopping down into her lap to coo at her comfortingly, Bo’s stare makes her turn her head and meet his startled—dare she say, scared?—blue eyes.

  “Your mother.” He chokes on further words, clears his throat. “Your mother, Didi.”

  “Just spit it out already,” she snaps, irritation a far cry better than this damned hurtful melancholy/pride/hurt she’s feeling.

  “I believe what young Bo is trying to say,” the gunslinger speaks up in his calm, reasonable voice, “is that your mother, Petal Gont, is an Underlord.”

  Didi’s turn to choke while Bo whistles softly again. “Understatement, my plastanium friend,” Bo says. “An Underlord born of an Underlord from the most powerful Underlord family in the galaxy.” He laughs suddenly, arms crossed behind his head. “Well now. I made the right choice, didn’t I?”

  She wants to hit him so badly, but can’t muster the energy. “I don’t understand any of this,” she says.

  “Nor do we,” the gunslinger says. “And though that’s a normal way of being for one of my kind—orders are never to be understood—I can see why you are frustrated.”

  His humor always surprises her.

  But, it’s Bo’s grin that holds her attention and brings her back to herself. Yes, he’s arrogant. Yes, she’s grateful. It gives her something to focus on.

  “Who says you’re invited?” She kicks him.

  “Your dad.” Bo makes a face at her, childish and funny enough to make her smile a little. “I’m special and he likes me. Remember?”

  She turns away so she won’t laugh. No, she’s not ready to give up on Dad. But, if they are right, if her mother is a powerful Underlord… well. Maybe there’s hope for her father yet.

  Didi settles back against the metal wall, the thrum of the ship beneath her lulling her at last into sleep, her pet crow cuddled against her, gunslinger at her side. She’d rather Dad, but… she’ll take it.

  ***

  Long into that night, as the two young people sleep, the gunslinger watches over her. Tarvis Duke wasn’t idle in the time they allowed him access to the cyborg. In fact, he was sure to implant vital information in the mind of the gunslinger.

  Only one thing of import lingers from that attention. He must protect Didi. Guard her with his life until she is safe in the arms of her mother. And he will do so, will die to save her, even as the fission chip in his chest, already damaged, leaks vital power he needs to survive.

  He watches over Didi as though she’s his own, just as Tarvis wants. While another little girl, dark haired and smiling, laughs in his head and whispers Daddy over and over.

  ###

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  Stay tuned for more from Didi and the Gunslinger coming soon…

  And look for the brand new series

  Reader: Book One of the Cycle of 5ive

  Eighteen-year-old Rhea Brooks has just been assigned as one of the caregivers of a group of paranormally talented kids, imprisoned to protect the world from criminally dangerous talents. With powers of her own, she bonds with her gifted charges, thinking them innocent and held without cause. But, when the five young men and women escape and turn on her and the rest of the world, she realizes her mistake. Rhea takes on the responsibility of bringing each of them back to the prison where they belong before they can destroy everything.

  Happy reading!

  ***

  About the Author

  Everything you n
eed to know about me is in this one statement: I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl, and now I’m doing it. How cool is that, being able to follow your dream and make it reality? I’ve tried everything from university to college, graduating the second with a journalism diploma (I sucked at telling real stories), was in an all-girl improv troupe for five glorious years (if you’ve never tried it, I highly recommend making things up as you go along as often as possible). I’ve even been in a Celtic girl band (some of our stuff is on YouTube!) and was an independent film maker. My life has been one creative thing after another—all leading me here, to writing books for a living.

  Now with multiple series in happy publication, I live on beautiful and magical Prince Edward Island (I know you’ve heard of Anne of Green Gables) with my very patient husband and six massive cats.

  I love-love-love hearing from you! You can reach me (and I promise I’ll message back) at patti@pattilarsen.com. And if you’re eager for your next dose of Patti Larsen books (usually about one release a month) come join my mailing list! All the best up and coming, giveaways, contests and, of course, my observations on the world (aren’t you just dying to know what I think about everything?) all in one place: http://smarturl.it/PattiLarsenEmail.

  Last—but not least!—I hope you enjoyed what you read! Your happiness is my happiness. And I’d love to hear just what you thought. A review where you found this book would mean the world to me—reviews feed writers more than you will ever know. So, loved it (or not so much), your honest review would make my day. Thank you!